SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 565 



ditioned modes of being which constitute consciousness, 

 without postulating unconditioned being. And we found 

 that objective Science can give no account of the world 

 which we know as external, without regarding its changes 

 of form as manifestations of something that continues con- 

 stant under all forms. This is also the implication to which 

 we are now led back by our completed synthesis. The 

 recognition of a persistent Force, ever changing its mani- 

 festations but unchanged in quantity throughout all past 

 time and all future time, is that which we find alone makes 

 possible each concrete interpretation, and at last unifies all 

 concrete interpretations. Not, indeed, that this coincidence 

 adds to the strength of the argument as a logical structure. 

 Our synthesis has proceeded by taking for granted at every 

 step this ultimate truth; and the ultimate truth cannot, 

 therefore, be regarded as in any sense an outcome of the 

 synthesis. Nevertheless, the coincidence yields a verifica- 

 tion. For when treating of the data of Philosophy, it was 

 pointed out that we cannot take even a first step without 

 making assumptions; and that the only course is to proceed 

 with them as provisional, until they are proved true by the 

 congruity of all the results reached. This congruity we 

 here see to be perfect and all-embracing holding through- 

 out that entire structure of definite consciousness of rela- 

 tions which we call Knowledge, and harmonizing with it 

 that indefinite consciousness of existence transcending re- 

 lations which forms the essence of Religion. 



192. Towards some result of this order, inquiry, scien- 

 tific, metaphysical, and theological, has been, and still is, 

 manifestly advancing. The coalescence of polytheistic con- 

 ceptions into the monotheistic conception, and the reduc- 

 tion of the monotheistic conception to a more and more 

 general form in which personal superintendence becomes 

 merged in universal immanence, clearly shows this advance. 

 It is equally shown in the fading away of old theories about 



